1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle door lock control device and more particularly to such a vehicle door lock device which is capable of unlocking vehicle doors without use of a key when inlock or a key locked-in state has occurred in which a driver inadvertently gets out of a vehicle with the key being left in the vehicle or when a child fiddles a remote-control key in a vehicle while waiting for parents, with the result that the vehicle doors are locked.
2. Related Art
In general, the following countermeasures are taken for a driver to cope with the key locked-in state. The driver always brings one or more duplicate keys with himself/herself or the duplicate key is retained on a safety location such as a reverse side of a bumper or fender.
Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. JP-A-H05-171851, JP-A-2006-62622, JP-A-2006-207147 and 2012-167495 disclose respective door lock control devices which are capable of unlocking the vehicle doors quickly upon occurrence of a key locked-in state.
However, in order that occurrence of the key locked-in state may be prevented, it is difficult for the driver to acquire the habit of bringing duplicate keys with himself/herself as a countermeasure against the key locked-in state. Furthermore, the duplicate key retained on the backside of the bumper or fender is exposed to a risk of theft.
The door lock control devices disclosed by the above-mentioned documents are each equipped in a vehicle as a genuine or original system and have a complicate configuration. Moreover, the door lock control devices disclosed in these documents cannot be post-installed on existing vehicles.